Lucy Hardie’s Drawings Explore Spirituality

Australian artist Lucy Hardie’s monochromatic drawings evoke Victorian-era illustrations. But instead depicting the idealized female form of the 19th-century, which was described in the literature of the time as frail to the point of sickliness, Hardie focuses on powerful female protagonists. At times her work dips into the spiritual realm. The world beyond is ever-present in Mary, a portrait of the artist’s great-grandmother. A female figure poses in the sober posture of an antique photograph, but her hair erupts like flames into an enormous floral headdress that contains a floating silhouette, like a spirit leaving the physical body. Take a look at some of Hardie’s recent work below.